Best friend a perfect match for woman's kidney transplant

PORTSMOUTH — Throughout the nearly 40 years they've known each other, Linda Berry and Lynda Bettcher have shared many memories.

Charles McMahon

PORTSMOUTH — Throughout the nearly 40 years they've known each other, Linda Berry and Lynda Bettcher have shared many memories.

From traveling with their husbands and relaxing on the beach to working as educators at Portsmouth High School, the two friends have surely experienced a lot.

But today, the bosom buddies, who admittedly are as thick as thieves, plan to share a new memory. The pair will head to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for a medical procedure in which Bettcher will give Berry a kidney she sorely needs.

With her kidney functioning at less than 20 percent, Berry suffers from end-stage kidney disease and is in dire need of a transplant. Called chronic interstitial nephritis, or chronic kidney disease, the symptoms are exhausting and life-altering.

Diagnosed in 1999, Berry said, she was able to keep her symptoms under control for quite a while, but her condition slowly began to go downhill.

"I was able to maintain for many years," she said. "My kidney function would decline then stabilize, decline then stabilize. My condition then gradually began to deteriorate."

It wasn't until 2011, Berry said, that her condition had worsened to the point that she decided to explore becoming a candidate for a kidney transplant.

"At the time, I was told the average wait for a donor kidney was four to six years, unless you had a living donor," she said.

With the symptoms intensifying and the potential for a living donor still very slim, Berry said, she was left to wait on the transplant list. But she didn't have to wait as long as she expected.

For Bettcher, watching her best friend go through the ill effects of kidney disease was difficult. At the time, Bettcher said, she was also watching her own daughter battle ovarian cancer — leaving her feeling overwhelmed and helpless. And when her daughter died only a few weeks later, Bettcher said, she was even more devastated.

"It was several months before I could emotionally attack another life-or-death crisis," she said.

But even despite her loss, it didn't take long for Bettcher to be there for her friend in need.

In 2012, Bettcher said she contacted Berry's physicians to learn more about whether she would be a viable donor.

If she wasn't, Bettcher said, she would have been willing to be part of a "paired donor exchange" program, where she would give a kidney to someone else to get a kidney for Berry.

However, test results showed Bettcher was a 92 percent match for her friend — a percentage Berry's doctor said is about as good as it gets.

"She needs to borrow my new black handbag? Check. She needs to borrow my slightly used kidney? Check. These are the unwritten rules of true friendship," Bettcher said.

For Bettcher, this meant she would be able to give a kidney to her best friend. For Berry, this meant a new lease on life — courtesy of her best friend.

"It's a miracle for me," Berry said.

Throughout the past year, both Bettcher and Berry have undergone test after test to ensure the transplant will be successful.

When thinking about what they are about to go through, Bettcher said both she and Berry understand the significance that lay before them — so much so they may never truly be able to fully comprehend it.

"I don't know if we have to say it," Bettcher said. "I don't know if we'll ever need to. I don't want her to have to thank me, though she has. I am a near-perfect match for my best friend. That makes me the lucky one."

Berry said she realizes how lucky she is to have a best friend who happens to be a nearly perfect match. She said she hopes to promote awareness of just how many people in the United States are waiting for a kidney transplant, which, according a recent report from the National Kidney Foundation, was 99,021 people. Berry and Bettcher say they also want their story to encourage others to consider registering to be an organ donor with the United Network for Organ Sharing (www.unos.org).

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